Methodology & Data Sources

Data sources by type

Wage data

All salary figures come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program. Specifically:

• State-level medians, 10th/25th/75th/90th percentiles, and entry-level/experienced figures — from the state OEWS file for each occupation's SOC code.
• National medians and total employment — from the national OEWS file.
• Data vintage — most recent annual release. OEWS publishes once per year.

Career outlook

Job growth projections and total employment openings come from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and Employment Projections program. Projections cover a ten-year horizon, measured as compound annual growth and total annual openings (both job-growth openings and replacement openings).

Licensing requirements

State-level licensing data — required training hours, exams, fees, renewal periods, continuing-education obligations, reciprocity, and age prerequisites — is compiled from each state's primary licensing authority. The source URL for every state × profession combination is cited directly on the page. Examples of the primary authorities we reference:

• State departments of public health (CNA, nursing)
• State boards of cosmetology and barbering
• State departments of motor vehicles / law enforcement (CDL)
• State boards of accountancy, pharmacy, nursing, and other profession-specific boards
• State departments of professional regulation or business licensing

Data refresh schedule

Different data types update on different cadences:

• OEWS wage data — annual. Refreshed within 2 weeks of each BLS release (typically April–May each year).
• Occupational projections — biennial. Refreshed with each BLS projections cycle.
• Licensing requirements — continuous. State rules change unpredictably; we spot-check top-volume states quarterly and rely on reader-submitted corrections for the long tail.

Every leaf page carries the year the data was most recently updated in its footer.

Our synthesis

Where a page says is it worth it? — that answer is editorial. It combines:

• Total cost to enter the field (training cost + exam fees + licensing fees)
• Time to first paycheck (training weeks + licensing lag)
• Wage delta vs. state and national medians for the occupation category
• Projected demand (growth rate + total annual openings)
• State-specific quirks (stricter reciprocity, unusual CE requirements, supply-demand imbalance)

The synthesis is opinionated; the underlying numbers are directly verifiable against BLS and the state sources linked on each page.

Known limitations

1. Wage data has a one-year lag. OEWS publishes in spring for the prior May's survey. Fast-moving wage markets (tech adjacents, post-shortage healthcare) may already have shifted.
2. Licensing rules change unpredictably. A state can change exam providers, raise fees, or modify CE requirements at any time. We check primary sources but can't guarantee real-time accuracy — always confirm the exact number with your state board before writing a check.
3. Not every profession has BLS coverage. Some niche or hybrid roles (phlebotomy, medical coding) are bundled into broader SOC categories that may overstate or understate specific role earnings.
4. Pay varies within a state. OEWS state figures are aggregates — a metro-area wage may be significantly different from a rural-area wage in the same state.
5. We don't track private-certification ROI. Vendor certifications (AWS, CISSP, PMP, CompTIA) aren't state-regulated and don't appear in OEWS occupation data; we intentionally exclude them from this site.

Corrections

If you find a number that doesn't match the source we cite, or a licensing rule we've gotten wrong, please let us know. We process corrections within a week and publish a changelog entry when we update data outside the normal refresh cycle.